The present invention relates to motor vehicle suspensions, and more particularly to a torsion bar actuator for trim height and roll control.
Motor vehicles are subject to road impacts, and to rolling when cornering. In order to separate the occupants of the vehicle from the effects of these forces to the greatest extent possible, vehicles are typically equipped with suspension systems that divide the vehicle between a sprung portion and an unsprung portion. A normal compromise in such vehicle suspension systems is between ride comfort and handling.
One type of vehicle suspension includes a torsion bar. The torsion bar usually extends generally perpendicular to the axis of rotation of a wheel of the vehicle, and twists to resist the forces applied to the wheel during road impacts or cornering. U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,197, for example, shows a vehicle wheel suspension that includes transverse control arms for an opposed pair of road wheels and a primary suspension spring beam spaced longitudinally of the vehicle away from the control arms and interconnected therewith by torsion rods installed on axes located outboard of the swing axes of the transverse control arms. Similarly, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,042,258, 4,143,887, 4,153,272, and 6,086,162 show other torsion bar suspensioning arrangements.
The present invention is a suspension for a motor vehicle. The suspension comprises a control arm connected to each of a pair of wheels, a torsion bar, and a height actuator. The torsion bar is connected to each control arm, and is rotatable in first and second directions. The height actuator is connected between the torsion bars, and is operable to lower a sprung mass of the vehicle by rotating the torsion bars in the first directions, and to raise the sprung mass by rotating the torsion bars in the second directions. A roll actuator is also connected between the height actuator and the sprung mass.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a suspension of the type described above which allows the trim height of the vehicle to be adjusted.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a suspension of the type described above which resists vehicle roll during cornering.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a suspension of the type described above which allows the trim height and/or roll control actuators to be packaged remotely from the vehicle wheels.